Voice Over Internet Protocol [VoIP] might sound like a term that’s confusing, nerdy & requires a maths degree to get to grips with. But, by the end of this post you’ll realize it is nothing of the sort! It is actually a very useful technology and represents a huge opportunity for small businesses, solo entrepreneurs and bootstrapping startups.
VoIP allows your company to connect with potential customers via an internet phone call, rather than a traditional analog phone system. Think of it as the highly reliable, far more user-friendly and feature heavy friend of systems like Skype.
Instead of looking like an amateur passing your clients your Skype handle, you can give them a phone number instead. You still get all of the benefits of using the internet to make phone calls, can work internationally & remotely but, you can still operate like a larger business and compete with the big boys at very little cost.
Let’s jump into some specifics and look at how VoIP will supercharge your Small Biz Marketing Strategy.
1. Increase Your Campaign Conversions
Communication builds trust. A study by Salesforce found that telephone based outreach delivered an 8.2% response rate from a prospective list, compared with a 0.03% response rate via email outreach. Getting on the phone might seem scary & long winded, but results show that you will have far higher success using technologies like VoIP to connect with potential customers.
Many small businesses now operate internationally, so if you are worried about the cost you don’t need to be. This is one of the huge benefits of VoIP technology. Calls can cost as little as 2 cents a minute. Another benefit is international phone numbers, VoIP allows you to choose a phone number from another country. Using a local number builds another layer of trust & raises the profile and professionalism of your company.
2. Increase Customer Satisfaction
Customers want to be treated like individuals and providing them with choice is one way you can increase customer satisfaction and keep them coming back for more. Surveys like this one from Genesys show that your customers really want to feel special. This study found that human service was the most important aspect of customer service.
Not everyone wants to communicate via email. Some customers prefer to get an immediate answer via instant messenger, and some want to talk in more depth and really understand what it is you offer over the phone.
Providing different ways to get in touch with your business will make customers feel like they are being treated like human beings. Isn’t that what we all want?!
3. VoIP makes Sales + Marketing work together more effectively
Depending on your company size you might not even see Sales + Marketing as two separate areas. If you are a solopreneur then you are doing it all, or most, by yourself! It doesn’t matter what size your company is, your results will dramatically shift when you separate these areas, even if at first it’s just superficially.
On a practical level VoIP can really help your sales + marketing efforts work together more effectively. This comes in the form of tracking. At the end of the day the success of both your marketing + sales activities comes down to – The Sale.
So how can we make more sales? One word, data.
Understanding exactly which marketing activity helped you to make that sale is powerful knowledge. Different VoIP numbers can be used for different campaigns very easily with this technology. All the numbers you set up go to exactly the same place, but, you will know which campaign that customer has come from. This is going to save your company so much time and money – start investing more in the campaigns that are working, and pull budget from the campaigns which don’t.
I hope you have been inspired by the huge benefits VoIP can deliver to your business and marketing strategy. Using this technology gives you the power of a multi-national company at a fraction of the cost of setting up these systems through traditional methods.
Source: B2C
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